The Road To Damascus
by Seanchaidh
Summary: After an absence of 2 years, Nikko graduates from college & returns home. He has a lot of catching up to do though, especially where Cal & Juliet are concerned. Now re-written to make sense even if you haven't seen the original series. Cal/Juliet. Active.
1. Chapter 1

The Road To Damascus

Chapter 1

The scene opens on a wide, grassy lawn before a large, imposing, stately building. The sun shines brightly as crowds of people laugh and chatter, gathering together in familial clumps or weaving their way through the crowd towards marquees and drinks stands. In every brightly coloured cluster there stands at berobed figure or two, the dark black of their capes and caps contrasting clearly with their surroundings.

In the shade of a marquee awning, a young woman stands alone, gazing into the distance as if lost in thought, her black robes drifting in the breeze.

"Dr Droil, I presume," said a familiar voice from behind the young woman.

Juliet Droil turned, her face breaking into a wide, genuine smile as she did so.

"Nikko!" Juliet cried, "I didn't think you could make it!"

"Yeah, well, who needs college? I mean it, I get enough lectures from my Dad as it is without having to sit through one or two extra hours worth of psych stuff I'm probably never gonna use, right?"

"You shouldn't be blowing off college just for this, Nikko!"

"Hey, trust me, I've got a dozen other reasons not to go to that class! Besides, what with Dad and the others up in Alaska, I figured at least one of us should show face!"

"Well, it was sweet of you. Thank you. So how is college anyway? Blown up anything recently?"

"Not there, no," Nikko laughed and glanced at his feet, "Their toilets have much better security! How about you? How does it feel to be a doctor at last? Congratulations on that, by the way."

"Thanks," Juliet smiled, "It feels good. Now, at least, when Cal gets too big for his boots, I have a handy doctorate to beat him down to size with!"

"So you're staying?" Nikko asked, looking up, surprised, "I thought you were just working there until you finished your PhD?"

"So did I, but your Dad offered me a place on the team for as long as I wanted it. He said he'd rather keep us all together since we work well as a team. Plus he knows he can trust all of us."

"And if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Nikko sighed, wistfully.

"Something like that," said his one-time tutor, not quite meeting his eyes.

"So is there anyone else here for you or what?"

"Oh, Anthony's here." Juliet waved a hand randomly at the hubbub of people. "He's just gone to get me a drink."

"Anthony?"

"Oh, I forgot, you haven't met him! Anthony and I have been together for about six months now."

"Six months?" Nikko's jaw dropped. "What? How come I didn't know about this? Does nobody tell me anything now?"

"Oh come on, Nikko, it's hardly headline news! Besides, you never asked!"

"So, what, is it serious? I mean it, how did you meet this guy? What do you know about him?"

"Nikko, you're as bad as Cal! You're my ex-pupil, you know, not my brother!"

"Oh, so Cal doesn't like the guy either?"

"What do you mean 'either'," Juliet snapped. "You haven't even met him the yet! And Cal doesn't seem to like anyone just now."

"But I'm meant to be working with him this summer!" Nikko wailed, his eyes rolling heavenward.

Juliet smirked and glanced over Nikko's shoulder.

"Ah," she said, as a tall, dark haired young man approached them, "here he is. Nikko, meet Anthony Blake. Anthony, this is Nikko Zond, an old student of mine; and an old friend."

"The famous Nikko," Anthony Blake drawled lazily, "I've heard so much about you."

"Sorry Tony," Nikko replied, "'fraid I can't say the same for you."

Juliet winced and rolled her eyes at Nikko's deliberate use of the shorter form of her boyfriend's name. She knew Anthony wouldn't say anything now, in front of Nikko, but she was sure he would blame her for it later.

The rest of the day passed a little quicker spent in the presence of her jovial ex-pupil, but the few weeks that followed, as Juliet awaited the return of her friends and archaeological colleagues, seemed to drag into an eternity. They had been through so much together, especially in that first year, when she had joined them with the remit of tutoring Professor Solomon Zond's wayward teenage son, Nikko. Somehow, between various archeological digs, hours of research, several "missions" and even publishing a paper or two towards her PhD, she had managed to get Nikko to learn enough coursework to get him through his exams with distinctions and into college. That was nearly two years ago now and, since Nikko had acquired so many "extra credits", he himself was due to graduate soon. Yet another Zond heading down the familial route of archeology, and promising to be even more controversial, passionate and brilliant than his father. It would be good to have him back, sobered slightly by an increasing understanding of his chosen subject, if not by age and maturity: Nikko was the team's lucky charm. In the year he had spent with them, they had found three pieces of the fabled "Ring of Truth", said to possess all the wisdom, and therefore all the power, of God. They had even been hot on the trail of a fourth piece when Nikko had left for college. Since he had left, they had found that fourth piece and just one more: another wheel, with the Eye of Horus carved in its centre. It was the Eye that the rest of the team had gone up to Alaska to find. The fourth piece of the Ring, another branching section, had taken six months to find, after half a year of chasing leads around the globe. It was the translation of this that had led them first to the Holy Land, then to Alaska.

Eventually, the day arrived that found Juliet standing in the forecourt of the Veritas Foundation building, conversing animatedly with Anthony.

"I just don't understand why, now that you have your doctorate, you still want to work here!" Anthony cried in frustration, "You could easily begin your own research elsewhere; somewhere more... more suitable!"

"Somewhere safer, you mean!"

"Well, yes, somewhere safer. One of your proposed team-mates is on his way home with a broken leg and dislocated shoulder, all because your precious Dr Zond dragged him off to some remote the tip of the Alaska on some of wild goose chase!"

"Cal will be fine. He's had worse injuries!"

"Somehow, Juliet, that does not reassure me!"

"They are my friends," said Juliet, her tone as cold as ice. "I've worked with them on this project for years."

"So you've done your bit," Anthony's voice was as warm as his beloved's was cold. His hands came to rest on Juliet's shoulders reassuringly. "You can hardly expect them to think badly of you for wanting to do something else with your life!"

"But that's a just it, Anthony, I don't," Juliet explained patiently. "I want to do this and that's all there is to it. Now let me go!"

Pulling her arm out of his grasp, Juliet hastened through the doorway and up the stairs, disappearing out of Anthony's sight. With one last, bitter grimace in her direction, he turned and stalked off, disappearing round a corner of the building.

"I swear, if that guy ever lays a finger on her, I'll kill him!"

Nikko looked up, hearing Cal's voice, and saw the heavily bandaged young man glaring out of the window.

"Who? That Blake guy?" Nikko asked, walking over, throwing a ball from hand to hand, "Why? Do you think he would?"

"I don't know that he wouldn't," Calvin replied through gritted teeth.

"Hey, am I missing something here, man?" Nikko pressed, sitting down on the windowsill Cal was looking out of, "Did something happen between you and Juliet while I was away? 'Cause, you know, this does not sound like the concern of an over-cautious friend. Man, this sounds like jealousy, pure and un-simple."

"Leave it, Nikko, it's none of your business. Besides, un-simple is not a word."

"Hey, chill man, I'm on your side here. I'm not exactly Tony's biggest fan myself. The guy is too far up his own... Ah, Juliet, and how are you this fine morning?"

"Drop the pretence, Nikko, it's obvious you were talking about me," Juliet said severely, depositing her bag and a jacket in the vestibule provided, "And before you ask, he was just worried about me coming back to work here after Cal's accident."

"What? So because _I'm_ clumsy _you_ can't work here?" Calvin burst out, still staring out of the window.

Juliet sighed and looked over at Cal. For a moment, Nikko thought he saw a flash of pain across her face, and then it was merely a look of concern she bore.

"What happened?" Juliet asked, "You look pretty beat up."

"I've had worse," Calvin replied sullenly.

"I know, I was there," Juliet said waspishly, "That wasn't what I asked."

"I fell!" Calvin snapped, wheeling the chair that was temporarily supporting him round to face Juliet, "I fell. Happy? Now at least I won't be around to mess up any other expeditions for you!"

Manoeuvring his wheelchair furiously Calvin left the room. Nikko, who had witnessed the exchange in silence, watched the look of shock, mingled with anger and pain, unfold on his ex-teacher's face.

"Well," Nikko said last, "Seems to me there's a lot of news and I missed out on while I was at college. Now it doesn't look like Cal will be showing his face for a while and I know Dad, Maggie and Vincent won't be back until tomorrow, so spill: what happened between you and Cal these last two years?"

Juliet looked up at Nikko and held his gaze from moment to two. The teenager raised his eyebrows expectantly and shrugged, his face smug.

"I'm gonna find out somehow," he said, "so you might as well give me your side of the story now."

Juliet sighed, pushed the books and papers she had brought with her to one side and sat down. Nikko walked forward and sat in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"So," he said, "Tell me how it all started."

_6½ Months Ago_

_On a deserted airstrip some miles outside Jerusalem, a private jet touched down. The door opened and stairs descended to the weed infested, dusty tarmac. Vincent led the way, followed closely by Dr Zond and Cal, all carrying equipment. Maggie followed, carrying bags also, and calling back over her shoulder to the young woman who was last to emerge. After a moment Juliet appeared at the jet's doorway, heavy bag in hand._

_"I think that's everything from in here," she said a she descended the steps "That just leaves the stuff in the hold."_

_"I'll make a start on that," Vincent said, walking round to the other side of the jet and leaving the growing pile of equipment with the others._

_Suddenly there was a sharp cry of alarm from Juliet. Not far from the bottom of the steps, her bag had caught on something. The weight of the bag and her own momentum threw Juliet off-balance and spun her round, so that she felt herself falling backwards through the air and down the stairs. She flung her hands out to grab hold of something and, as they met something solid, she felt her fall broken by a pair of arms now wrapped around her._

_Tearing her eyes away from the no longer receding jet, Juliet looked up to see that it was Cal who had caught her. Her left arm had landed a hold around his neck and he was holding her 'Gone With The Wind' style around her back and waist._

_"You know, if you were planning on falling for me, I could have done with a bit more warning!" Cal joked, although his eyes never left Juliet's for a moment._

_There was silence._

_For once, Juliet couldn't think of anything to say. Time seemed to stop: an eternity passed with the two gazing into each other's eyes._

_"Hey Juliet! You okay? " Dr Zond yelled, breaking the spell of the moment._

_Juliet blinked and looked round just in time to see Maggie punch Solomon's arm and Vincent hold up his hands, refusing to back up his friend as Dr Zond appealed to him silently._

_Juliet let Cal help her stand up, noticing as she did so that his cheeks were a little flushed and wondering if hers were the same._

_"I'm fine," she called, dusting herself down and straightening her hair and clothes before retrieving her bag, "I just slipped. No harm done."_

"That was how it started," Juliet told Nikko as the younger man listened patiently, "One stupid slip. One crucial moment."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Dad!" Nikko's shout echoed through the hallway.

"I'm on my way, son!" Solomon Zond shouted back, emerging a few minutes later from his office.

"Come on, Dad, we're gonna be late!"

"We won't be late, Nikko; now have you got everything?"

"Yeah, I've got everything! Dad, I've been ready for a half hour already!"

"Well let's go then. You know, I never thought I'd see the day you actually managed to graduate from college."

"Gee, thanks, Dad. Nice to know how much faith in you had in me!" Nikko teased before picking up his bag and following his father out of the building.

The graduation ceremony took well over an hour and was drawing near to two hours when Solomon, Vincent and Maggie finally were able to shake Nikko's hand and congratulate him. Juliet and Anthony walked over to offer their own congratulations, while Calvin watched them with a scowl on his face.

"You know, you never did tell me why you hate the guy so much," Nikko said as he left his father and the others talking business and sat down next to Calvin's wheelchair.

"Do I need a reason?" Calvin snapped, "Besides, you're hardly his number one fan yourself."

"Yeah, but I just think the guy is creepy. You: man, you really seem to loathe him!"

"You know what, buddy? " Calvin said, with false cheerfulness, "I'll tell you a secret. Come here."

Nikko leaned over as Calvin beckoned to him.

"What?" Nikko whispered.

"It's none of your business," Calvin whispered back, before turning his wheelchair round and moving off on the direction of the drinks tent.

"Cal okay?" Solomon Zond asked his son as he sauntered over, a handing Nikko a glass of orange juice.

"He's just being his usual cheerful self," Nikko quipped, taking the glass, "I thought you said he was getting over Sophie? He seems as bad as ever: worse even!"

"Oh, he was," Solomon confirmed, "This is just recent. Past six months at most. It seemed to start with our trip out to the Holy Land. I'm sure something happened out there to cause it, but neither of them will say what."

"Neither?"

"Cal and the Juliet. We were based in Jerusalem. We found some texts that pointed towards something that Damascus. I needed Maggie and Vincent with me, so I sent Cal and Juliet. The journey took them quite a few weeks all told. Longer than it should have, much longer. Something happened on that trip, I know: I just don't know what."

"Damascus. Isn't that, like, where that Saint Paul guy went to? I thought it was miles away from Jerusalem? Why not just send them in the jet?"

"Three reasons," Solomon told his son, sipping his drink, "First, yes, it is miles away, but not far enough to warrant using the jet; second, if I had sent them in the jet, they would have had to cross various different airspaces, some of which are disputed and then organise a landing site in Syria; and third, with the way things are going with the territory disputes in Jerusalem and the West Bank just now, we might have needed the jet for a quick exit at any moment. The majority of the gear stayed with us, as well as all the artifacts we had found so far, bar the ones Cal and Juliet took with them. They had all their stuff in their backpacks and between them they either speak or can work out enough of any languages used in the area to get by okay. They had their medics covers and didn't stick out too much in the crowd. They shouldn't have had any problems. They should have been there and back within a week. Instead they were almost a month."

"What? And you just left them to it? You weren't worried about them? What if Dorna had got them?"

"Of course we were worried, but we knew they were okay," Solomon shrugged, "Juliet checked in with us every night but the satellite phone. Sometimes Cal was with her, sometimes he wasn't, but every night she told us that they were both fine, they had travelled to such and such a place, they had found this or that: all the basic details, but nothing in depth. There was a point where we didn't see Cal for a whole week, but Juliet assured us he was fine, just working on something. They said they had come across something on the way and if all went well, they'd tell us all about it when they got back."

"And did they?"

"Apparently they found some sort of underground labyrinth, possibly some early catacombs. They did some work there, mapping and suchlike, all the usual groundwork, meaning to go back later, but with Juliet getting to the end of her PhD and our trip to Alaska, they never did. I still haven't seen most of the stuff they found there: we've been too busy with the rest."

"What happened in Alaska?" Nikko asked his father, watching him shrewdly.

Solomon's face darkened slightly and he looked down at his glass, avoiding eye contact with his son.

"Maybe you should talk to Cal about that," Solomon said quietly.

Nikko frowned.

"What is it, Dad?"

"Like I said, Nikko: talk to Cal."

Nikko watched, still frowning in puzzlement, as his father drained his glass then turned and walked off towards the drinks tent. Looking around, Nikko found himself on his own.

"Great," he said to himself, "whose graduation is this anyway?"

Meandering among the crowds, Nikko spotted Calvin, glowering through the mass of people in one, very particular direction. Nikko followed his gaze and saw Anthony Blake, his arm around Juliet's shoulders. Blake was watching Juliet closely as the couple talked and he certainly was not paying much attention to where he was going. As they walked through the various aggregations of people, Nikko noticed that they too were heading for one of the refreshments areas, where numerous tables were scattered around bearing canapés, sandwiches and drinks of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties.

_If only that table were a little to the right,_ thought Nikko.

The young man grinned as he imagined the effect, picturing it clearly in his mind. No sooner had he done so than there was a yelp of pain as Anthony Blake walked straight into the corner of the table, positioned at the very uncomfortable height. Nikko blinked. He was sure they had been on a course to miss the table. He laughed a little, uncertain of what he had seen, then noticed Calvin. The look on the young man's face was not one of joy at the petty downfall of an opponent, nor even sympathetic pain, it was sheer bewilderment. Nikko's eyes flicked from Cal's face to the doubled up figure of Anthony Blake by the table. He swallowed nervously. Was the table exactly where it had been? He had been sure before; now he wasn't. What was more: if it _had_ moved, then Cal had seen it do so.

Nikko tried to regain his composure. Up until now, the ability he had discovered two years ago, to move objects, had only brought nearby things closer to him. He had been careful, very careful, to keep his new talent hidden, using it only when he was alone in his room at college or at home. He had never even tried to move things away from him and had never even considered trying to move anything so large or so far away. He hadn't even told his father: he had been waiting for that never-present occurrence, the 'right moment'.

Seeing that Cal was about to go over to Juliet and Blake, Nikko hurried over.

"Hey, Cal!" Nikko called, stopping the young archaeologist in his wheelchair-bound tracks and racing to his side, "What's up, man? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"What?" Cal replied, his eyes flicking between the offending table and Nikko, "Oh, no, I just thought... It's nothing, never mind."

"I'd have thought you'd be rolling in the aisles at old Tony over there," Nikko said, his voice forcefully cheerful, "I mean, man, that must have hurt!"

"Oh, y-you saw that?" Cal fixed his gaze on Nikko a little more solidly, "D-did you...? I mean..."

"What?" Nikko tried to keep his tone jovial.

"Did you do something to that table?"

"What? Me?" Nikko could feel the panic begin to creep into his voice, "H-how could I? I was over there: behind you!"

"You didn't have some string or something rigged up? A friend standing by the table or something?"

"What? No!" Nikko felt relief flooding into him, "I mean, even I couldn't know they were going to walk by that table, right?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course! What? You think I'm psychic or something?"

"Then how come I just saw that table move about a foot to the right just before Blake hit it?"

"How should I know?" Nikko thought fast, "Maybe someone was leaning against the other side. Maybe there are more than two people here who don't like Blake."

"Maybe," Cal echoed, casting a glance back to where Juliet was looking after Blake then looking away sullenly.

"So... Er..." Nikko paused, not quite sure how to broach the subject but wanting to take Calvin's mind off Juliet and Blake, "you gonna tell me what happened in Alaska?"

"There's nothing to tell, Nikko."

"Come on, man, you fell far enough to end up in a wheelchair. Even if it is just temporary, that kind of injury has to have a story behind it."

"Not one I want to tell."

"Well, then it's something you shouldn't keep bottled up. Just tell me and get it over with. You'll feel better if you do."

"You sure about that?"

"Well, you won't have me bugging you for one thing. I mean, that's gotta be a plus!"

Cal gave a short, cynincal laugh and shook his head.

"I fell, Nikko, that's all there is to it."

"If that's all there is to it, then why won't Dad tell me what happened?"

Cal looked away, frowning, then looked back.

"Fine," he said, "I'll tell you. But not here. Let's go find somewhere quieter. Away from those two."

Nikko glaced over at Juliet and her beau and nodded, following as Cal wheeled his way through the crowd and back into the now deserted college building.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Six Weeks Ago_

"_You have _got_ to be kidding me!" Solomon Zond exclaimed emphatically looking at the forbidding topology before him and his team._

"_That's the co-ordinates, Solomon," Maggie assured him, "That's where we'll find it."_

"_Or our next clue," Vincent observed._

"_If it's even still there," Cal added._

_Before the group, towering up into the snowy distance, was a pinnacle of rock and ice. The team had travelled for most of the long hours of daylight and, although the hour was late, the sun was still present above the horizon. At that time of year, in such northerly latitudes, the sun hardly dipped below it and full darkness never really fell._

"_Okay," Solomon sighed and nodded, "Let's set up camp. We'll do a tour of the base of the rock tomorrow: see what we can find out about the lie of the land. I don't want to climb it if I don't have to and if there is even the slightest hint of a cave or crevice we'll check that out first."_

_In what shelter from the ever present wind the rock offered, the team pitched their tent. The thick, well insulated edifice had been carried in parts on the various supply trailers attached to the group's individual skidoos and, once assembled, provided quarters for all four travellers. Maggie and Calvin slept fitfully on opposite sides of the domed structure, Solomon slept as soundly as if he were at home in his own bed and Vincent lay silent and still, whether asleep or discreetly watchful it was impossible to tell._

_The next morning, when Solomon awoke to find that Cal had already given up his struggle to find rest while both Maggie and Vincent now dozed peacefully, the light filtering through the tent suggested a duller day. Sure enough, when the team made their way outside, they found the sky above overcast and threatening snow._

"_Let's get on with it," Solomon said as Maggie handed round equipment, "Hopefully we can get this thing before that cloud bursts."_

_Leaving Maggie with the computer equipment in the relative warmth of the tent, the three men made their way around the base of the protrusion._

"_I hate to say this," Cal announced as they turned around a second sharp corner of rock, "but this is beginning to have an awfully familiar feel."_

"_I know what you mean," Solomon replied, scanning the rock face with the gadget in his hand as well as his narrowed, sharp eyes, "but I can't get any good readings. If this is what we think it is, either the glyphs aren't on this part of it, have never been on any part of it or, most likely, have been worn off by wind and ice."_

_Eventually, the three made their way around a fourth corner and back to the camp. Maggie was waiting for them in the tent with her eyebrows raised._

"_I take it you got the data back okay then," Solomon said, walking over to where Maggie sat and peering over her shoulder at the computer screen._

"_Not only that," Maggie replied, "I've used the lines on this side of the pyramid to work out what sort of size it was originally. Even sheltered as it is from the prevaling wind, there will still have been some erosion from the ice, so I can't be accurate, but taking into consideration the material it is made of and the amount that is missing, I'd say this pyramid is at least as old as the one we found in Antarctica, possibly even older."_

"_There doesn't seem to be any hint of layers, as far as I can see," Cal mused as he looked over the image on the computer screen, "and it certainly isn't having the same effect on its surroundings as the one in Antarctica. That could point to it being built with a different technology, maybe an older one."_

"_Or it could just point to it being built for a different purpose," Solomon observed, "I didn't pick up any cracks or possible openings in the rock face though."_

"_If there is a way in, it would be much lower," said Vincent, "Remember how far below the ice the pyramid in Antarctica descended. We cannot be sure of much, but we can be sure that what we see here is merely the tip of a far larger structure."_

"_You're beginning to sound like an archaeologist!" Solomon teased._

"_Let's just say that I'm familiar with the concept of hidden depths," Vincent quipped._

"_Well, we can't go in," Solomon shrugged, "And we certainly can't go down. Not with this equipment. That leaves us with going up. Maggie: you stay here with the computer equipment and keep an eye on us. Let me know if there's any change in the weather heading our way."_

"_Weather reports say there's a seventy per cent chance of snow within the next three hours," Maggie told him, "Think you can make it?"_

"_We've got to try. If we wait until the storm passes and it does break here, then the new snow will make the climb more dangerous. We'll take this side: it's not as eroded as the others, which might make it difficult to get a grip on it, but it's not as steep, it's more sheltered and if there is anything left higher up, any doorways or inscriptions, it'll be on this side."_

"_Understood."_

_The three men made their way back out of the tent, hurrying towards the near side of the pyramid. Vincent led the climb, followed by Solomon, then Cal. The eroded tip of the pyramid stood hundreds of feet above them, a faint white point against a grey, cloudy sky._

_For the first hour, everything was going well, then Maggie's voice crackled through the radios._

"_Solomon, the weather front has moved. It's heading directly towards you now and it's moving fast. You'll have snow within the next half hour or so if it keeps this course and I'm not just talking the edge of the storm, I mean the whole thing."_

"_Thanks Maggie," Solomon called back on his radio, "We'll try and get a move on."_

"_If we pick up the pace a bit, we should be on the way back down before the storm hits," Vincent advised his comrade, "And, once it does, we should still be sheltered by the pyramid itself."_

"_Let's get going then," called Cal._

_As the pyramid narrowed, the climbers fell into line below each other. With the wind whipping round the sides of the pinnacle, the climbers slowed. They were just a few metres from the top when the storm began hurling snow, sleet and ice at them from the other side of the pyramid._

"_I've got some glyphs!" Vincent shouted down over the noise of the wind, "they look similar to the ones we found in Antarctica and in Haley's journal."_

"_Only similar?" Solomon called back._

"_There is another here: it looks more Egyptian. It's an eye."_

"_Like the Eye of Horus?"_

"_Yes, I think so. It's hard to tell from the weathering."_

"_Can you move it? Is it a switch? It there a panel there?"_

"_I'm just clearing off the snow now. I think there is something here. There's a break in the glyphs. It's too regular to be a crack. It's round."_

"_Try and push it or twist it or something."_

"_I think it's hollow. Like the one on Elm Island. Hang on."_

_Barely visible above him, Solomon could see the snow-obscured figure of Vincent pull out an ice-pick from his supplies. He had just raised the pick to strike the pyramid when there was a cry and Solomon felt himself pulled suddenly downwards._

"_Cal?" Solomon cried, struggling to maintain a hand-hold on the icy rock, "You okay?"_

"_Something hit me," Cal's voice shouted up from below, "I lost my grip. I can't move my arm. You're gonna have to cut me loose."_

"_No way. Not from up here."_

"_The angle of the slope should mean that I can just roll or slide down. It's not a sheer drop, just a long one, but I've a better chance if I don't have to worry about being landed on by you two."_

"_Another minute and we'll be heading down anyway. Just try and hold on with your good arm."_

"_And then what? You can't carry me down, it's too dangerous. You have to cut the rope. I'll land near enough to the tent and you can grab the artifact and get down safely."_

"_He's right Solomon: you have to cut him loose," Vincent called down from above, "We can't hold his weight and if he brings us down with him, on top of him, he has no chance."_

_Two hours later an unconscious Calvin was strapped to the supplies trailer of Vincent's skidoo as the other three made the last checks on their supplies and newly acquired find before heading back, post haste, to the nearest form of civilization._

"So that's it," Calvin finished, "we ran into some bad weather and I lost my grip. I nearly cost us the artifact, but Vincent managed to get it anyway. It's a circular disc, like the wheel of Dharma but with the eye of Horus at its centre. We think it's another part of the ring."

"And my Dad: he just cut the rope? He let you fall?" Nikko asked, aghast.

Calvin looked uncomfortable and avoided Nikko's eyes.

"Not quite," said a voice.

Nikko looked up to see Maggie standing in the doorway behind Cal.

"What Cal's not telling you is that he cut the rope himself," she said gently, "Your father wouldn't let him go so easily, and the storm was getting worse, so your friend here took matters into his own hands. He was lucky. If the slope of the pyramid had been much steeper, his leg wouldn't have been all he broke in that fall."

Nikko looked back at Cal who was staring at the wall with gritted determination. He was confused. On one hand, Cal had been about to let him believe that it was Nikko's own father who had put him in his present condition and risked killing him in doing so. On the other, Cal had risked both life and limb, by his own hand, to make sure that his father and Vincent were in no greater danger than necessary and that they got the vital piece that had warranted the dangerous ascent in the first place.

"Y-your arm," Nikko said, avoiding the topic, "it was whatever hit it up there that dislocated it?"

Cal nodded stiffly.

"Any idea what it was?"

"We think it could have been a large ball of compacted ice or a chunk of rock broken off from somewhere else and blown by the storm," Maggie said, filling in Cal's silence, "Whatever it was, it left a good sized bruise in his shoulder, even after the ones from the fall started to disappear. He was lucky that it was just his shoulder it hit. If his head hadn't been behind the pyramid, a blow of that magnitude would easily have knocked him out, even with the helmet, and could even have killed him outright."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Nikko wandered through his father's apartment and adjoining offices and workrooms, passing a bean-filled ball from hand to hand. He was looking for Juliet. Between the story she had told him before his graduation and the story he had heard from his father after the ceremony, he was sure there was a lot both she and Cal weren't telling. He had tried asking Cal, but the older man had clammed up on him, wheeling himself off in with a sour look on his face and locking himself into the Veritas building rooms he was staying in.

As he rounded the corner of a doorway, he saw Juliet leaning over something and examining it closely with a hand lens. She was alone for once: the first time since the graduation that he had seen her so. Glancing over his shoulder, he put the ball into his pocket and crept up behind her. As he reached her, Nikko craned his neck to see what artifact she was examining, expecting to see the section of the ring of truth his father and the others had retrieved from Alaska. Instead, he was surprised to find a roll of parchment stretched out on the desk, its characters resembling an odd mixture of Arabic and Hieratic symbols.

"Did they bring that back from Alaska?" Nikko asked suddenly, making Juliet jump in surprise.

"Don't you ever knock?" Juliet drawled, glaring at him over her glasses.

"There's no door!" Nikko protested, gesturing towards the doorway to verify his claim. It was true: there wasn't. "And how else am I supposed to find out what's going on around here? Nobody tells me anything any more!"

"Well don't look at me: I'm still waiting to be graced with the details of their last trip myself and I get paid for being here!"

"Ah, so the parchment's not from Alaska then!" Nikko grinned at having acquired the answer Juliet had seemed reluctant to give.

"No," Juliet sighed, resignedly, "it isn't."

"Then where?" Nikko persisted. "The Holy Land? That trip you were telling me about before?"

Juliet turned away from him and back to the parchment. She sighed.

"Juliet, tell me! Come on: what do you think I'm gonna do? Run off to Dorna with it?"

"Hardly," Juliet muttered, perusing the document again, her mind flashing back to the many encounters they had had with the ancient secret society Dorna. Being both ruthless and determined, with an apparently bottomless supply of funds, Dorna had hounded their every attempt to acquire pieces of the Ring of Truth, as well as several other important finds even before the Veritas team had any notion of such articles' importance. Juliet shrugged. "I think they would have made a move already if it was something _they_ wanted."

"So it's not connected to the ring?"

"I don't know," the young woman admitted thoughtfully, removing her glasses and raising the parchment to eye level, "I have no idea what it is yet."

"What does my Dad think?"

Juliet put the parchment down and turned away again, heading for another part of the room: the bookcases on the far wall.

"He doesn't know!" Nikko exclaimed, "He doesn't, does he?"

"I don't want to waste his time on something that is probably no more than a meaningless puzzle!"

"What makes you so sure it _is _meaningless? It could be just the clue he's looking for!"

"Nikko, things that have meaning to your father usually have meaning to other people too: people who tend to try, rather violently, to obtain those things for themselves! Nothing of that kind has happened to us since we found the parchment, so I assume, therefore, it is meaningless," Juliet paused and raised a finely-shaped eyebrow, "in that sense anyhow!"

"You said 'we'," Nikko continued, "You mean you and Cal? Was this something you found when you were stuck down in those catacombs?"

"How do you know about the catacombs?" Juliet asked sharply, turning to look at Nikko, her eyes narrowed.

"Dad mentioned something. He was a bit sketchy on the details, but he said you were down there for about a month!"

Juliet's gaze softened a little and she turned back to the bookcase. For a few moments she was silent, her head tilted and her eyes flicking along the line of volumes. Eventually she selected one, pulled one out and thumbed through the index. Finding something useful, she opened the book to the correct page and handed it to Nikko.

"Hold this," she ordered, turning back to repeat the process with another volume, "Since you're so determined to be a part of things you can help me translate the parchment."

"I'll have to hear the full story of how you found it."

"Fine," Juliet sighed, knowing better than to argue with Nikko now that he had seen the scroll, "Just keep it to yourself for now."

"What, I can't even tell Cal? I thought you found it together?"

"Yes, we did, but he doesn't know I'm looking at it without him. I didn't want to bother him with this until he was fully recovered. He's got enough on his plate with the stuff they brought back from Alaska. The Eye of Horus wasn't the only artifact they found out there you know."

"Surely he'd understand..." Nikko began, but Juliet cut him off caustically.

"Cal doesn't seem to understand much these days!"

"Since when?" Nikko cried, rolling his eyes in frustration before lowering his voice to continue, "What is this? What's going on between you two? There's more to this than a simple slip off the jet steps! Something happened between you two out in those catacombs! Something big! Dad said there was a period where they didn't see Cal on the videophone for an entire week and Cal himself keeps hinting that he messed up last time you two worked together. What happened? Did he go haring off on his own or something? Did you? Tell me!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"I wouldn't know where to start," Juliet sight. "So much happened on that trip. So much changed. Too much, really."

"You told me what happened when you landed," said Nikko. "Dad told me that he had to send you and Cal off to Damascus on your own. He said the journey should have taken a week. How about you start by telling me when things first started to go wrong?"

_Seven Months Ago_

_They had managed to get a lift in a battered old jeep. It had been cross country on possibly the worst suspension Juliet had ever experienced, but it had got them further along the road to Damascus anyway. Now they were standing in what passed for a village square in these parts, their bags on their backs and their eyes darting about for signs of life. The drive had been a long one, skirting round the edge of the border until they were finally within sight of the sea of Tiberias, or Galilee. Juliet wasn't sure of the name of the village - she had been a little preoccupied with staying in the jeep as it bounced along - but Cal had assured her he knew exactly where they were and what direction they were headed in._

"_We'll have to walk most of the rest of the way into Syria, though," he had said. "There are huge chunks of land around here with no roads at all, not to mention the massive buffer zone between the ceasefire lines."_

"_Any ideas how we get across that?" Juliet avoided Cal's eyes. She hadn't looked him directly in the eye for a week now. Not since her fall at the landing site. She wasn't exactly looking forward to spending so much time alone with him._

"_There's a couple of possibilities," Cal shrugged. His grasp of the modern local languages was much better than hers and he had managed to maintain a conversation with their driver for most of the last few hours. "We could simply walk straight up to the UN Disengagement Observer Force ceasefire lines, knock on the door, wave our medic badges and hope they'll let us through."_

"_Somehow I doubt it!" Juliet raised an eyebrow._

"_Or," Cal bent down and started drawing a map in the dusty ground, "we walk from here to Mevo Hama, find an acquaintance of our friend who brought us here, drive from there to Boutaiha then trek across one of the corners of the ceasefire lines and on to Jasim, then find some transport to take us from there up to Damascus."_

"_How far is that?"_

"_The longest hike is from Boutaiha to Jasim," Cal drew a line between the two points on his dust-map. "It's about 20 kilometres as the crow flies. On the ground, with the topology around here, considerably more. Plus we'll have to try and stay hidden. This hills have eyes, as they say. And around here, sometimes, the eyes have guns."_

"_We don't have supplies for that kind of trip, Cal."_

"_We'll pick them up along the way," Cal shrugged, obliterating the dust-map and standing up. He turned to Juliet, who suddenly seemed absorbed in adjusted the strap of her rucksack. "We'll get there, Juliet. We just have to be careful and plan for a long journey."_

"Of course, he was right," Juliet told Nikko, leaning against the table and watching the doorway for any signs of approach by Cal or any of the rest of the team. "We did get there and it was a long journey, and if he hadn't stocked up on as much food and water as he did when we got to Mevo Hama, we probably wouldn't have made it. I could barely carry my pack, and his was twice the size nearly, but believe me we were glad of it in the end. I still don't know how we managed to avoid detection crossing that buffer zone, but we did. A few bribes, a secret tunnel or two and then there we were: in Syria, walking across open country towards Jasim. We spent the first night camped in the rubble of a ruined farmhouse about half way. At least, that's what we thought it was. It could have been anything: there was barely a wall left standing. The next morning, we started walking again. We had a few close calls getting past the borders, but nothing really untoward. We were following the line of an old Roman road for most of the time. Not one that had survived and been rebuilt to take modern traffic: that would have been far too risky. This one had become little more than a dust track used by local farmers and villagers. It had passed by a couple of villages, but now the land was empty. Just empty, as far as the eye could see. We followed the track until it petered out, then just kept going in the same direction. We spotted something odd ahead of us: a shape in the ground, like a dark circle. Cal thought it might be an old well, so we headed for it. When we got there, we saw there were two dark circles, each at either end of a depression in the ground. What was really odd was that another depression cut across the first at right angles, about halfway along. We walked the length of it. It was twice as long in one direction as it was in the other. If you were to draw the two depressions, with the circles in place, it would look like a cross. The cross of Christ, actually, with the circles at the points where his hands would have been nailed."

Nikko let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. "So, what? You think there had been a cross there?"

"No, no," Juliet shook her head. "No, it was too big for that. Way too big. I mean we're talking cathedral size here, Nikko. A big, Gothic style cathedral like the ones in Europe. But the great Gothic cathedrals weren't built until over a thousand years after the time of Christ."

"Around about the time of the crusades, though, right?"

Juliet nodded, part of her still pleased when her ex-pupil spotted exactly what she had been hinting at.

"We stopped to investigate, obviously," Juliet continued. "If the Templars or anyone else had built a cathedral on the site, then there should surely be some sort of sign of it further down if not above the topsoil. I took one of the corners of the join of the two depressions. Cal started work on one of the dark circles. We'd been digging half a day when it happened."

"What?" Nikko cut in, enthralled.

"The entire circle Cal was working on caved. I looked up just in time to see him disappear down into the hole. Luckily he'd left his pack with mine in the centre of the two depressions, so I could use both our ropes if I had to and we hadn't lost anything. I lowered a rope down to him and called out. I couldn't see how far he'd fallen and he didn't answer me at first, so I was starting to panic when he finally shouted back. He said he was okay, but he couldn't move, which isn't exactly my definition of okay, but this is Cal we're talking about here. I lowered the packs down first, then myself. I was lucky the rope held: there wasn't much up there for me to tie it on to. I found Cal on top of the rubble that had fallen with him. I'd expected him to be trapped, but no: he just literally couldn't move. Again: not my definition of okay!" Juliet's features hardened angrily. "I checked him over. There were no obvious breaks. He had a bad cut on his head, with a lump forming under it, where he had hit it on landing. It was nowhere near as bad as it should have been though. There was no obvious nerve impairment to his hands and feet: he could feel with them okay, he just couldn't move them. Then I asked him if there was anything else I should know, medically that is. And that's when he decided to drop the next little bombshell on me."

"Why, what was wrong?" Nikko asked, frowning.

"Oh nothing, nothing at all. He had no pain, no dizziness, no nausea. He was absolutely fine apart from the two small facts that he couldn't move a muscle and was totally blind!"

"Cal went blind?" Nikko's voice went up an octave.

"Probably thanks to the bump on his head," Juliet shrugged, "but that's not what he'll claim caused it."

"Why, what does he think?"

Juliet turned and looked directly at Nikko. "He said that, as he fell, he saw a bright light all around him. In the light, he heard a voice. He wouldn't tell me then what the voice said, and he never has since. He said it wasn't my voice, though: it was definitely male. There was nobody else around, Nikko, and I didn't see any bright lights. What's even weirder is how long the blindness lasted."

"Just the blindness?"

"Yes, the paralysis wore off after about half an hour. The blindness took three whole days. To the exact minute!"

"That is a little weird," said Nikko, frowning.

"Tell me about it," Juliet sighed. "It's exactly the same length of time that Saint Paul is reputed to have gone blind for after seeing a bright heavenly light and hearing a voice that nobody else heard, during his famous conversion on the road to..."

"Damascus," Nikko finished when Juliet left the sentence hanging. "You don't think you were in the exact same spot, do you?"

"It sure would give the Templars a reason to build a cathedral over it!" Juliet shrugged.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Nikko was trying to hack into his Dad's computer when Cal stuck his head round the side of the study door.

"Give up, junior: I re-encrypted it for him," Cal drawled lazily. "Have you seen Juliet around today?"

"She was in her lab last I saw," Nikko asnswered, ignoring the suggestion that he 'give up' his attempt on the computer. "Shouldn't you still be on crutches or something?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get back to 'em. There's just something I have to do first."

Nikko glanced up with a raised eyebrow, but Cal had already turned away.

Juliet wasn't in her lab. Nor was she in her rooms: Cal had tried both of those obvious choices before even considering Doctor Zond's office. He had also tried the kitchens, the main lab, Maggie's lab and the library. That only left a few possibilities. At least finding Nikko had confirmed that she was actually in the building somewhere.

He wandered through the artifact stores, checking darkened corners in case she had spotted him and decided to avoid him. Not that she was without cause: he'd hardly been that eager to find her himself until this morning. It wasn't that he'd suddenly undergone any great change of heart on the matter. He still felt exactly the same as he had six months ago, closer to seven now really. He knew even just seeing her was going to be painful, but this wasn't something he could let pass by. She had to know.

Eventually he tracked her down. She was in the basement, in the archives, engrossed in some old case files. He slowed his steps, walking so quietly that he was right behind her before she noticed his presence.

The shock and guilt on her face as she turned round to see who was there couldn't have been meant for him, Cal reasoned, so she must have been looking at something the others weren't aware of. She soon recovered, however, and a look of annoyance and irritation flooded across her features instead.

"Out of my way, Cal," said Juliet, trying to step around her colleague.

"Not this time," Cal replied, blocking her way with an arm firmly fixed to the shelving unit on either side of her. "You need to hear this, and for once, and I really mean this Juliet, for once this has nothing to do with you and me and what happened in Syria."

Juliet swallowed visibly. Her back was to the shelving unit and she really wanted to run right now. Not because Cal was scaring her: he wasn't. If there was anyone in the room she didn't trust, it was herself.

"Hear what?" Juliet snapped, looking away impatiently. "This had better be important!"

"I overheard a conversation this morning," Cal sighed. "I heard a voice I recognised, so I listened in. Rude of me, I know, but considering what I heard I think I've been justified on that point."

"Well?" Juliet folded her arms, for want of somewhere to put her hands, and leant back against the shelves. It was the unit that backed onto the wall of the basement, so she could press herself back against it as far as she could without worrying about toppling it.

Cal took a breath and winced. She wasn't going to make this easy for him, but then who would in her position?

"It was Anthony," he said, and caught the glance Juliet flashed towards him. "He was talking to somebody, on a cellphone. He didn't see me. He had his back towards me. I figured he'd just been walking you to work."

"He probably had," said Juliet warily.

"I don't know who he was talking to, he didn't mention any names. I didn't catch anything that came through the cellphone either. All I heard was 'Stop worrying. Everything's fine. She doesn't suspect anything.' Then there was a pause. Presumably the person on the other end wasn't inclined to stop worrying because the next thing he said was 'So what if it takes a little longer than planned! These things are never set in stone. I'm getting more access to the building every day. All I need is another week, maybe two, and we'll have what we want.' Then there was another pause and he hung up. Or rather, I'm guessing, whoever he's working for hung up on him."

"You don't know that has anything to do with me, Cal," Juliet snapped, meeting his eyes fully for the first time in their conversation. "That conversation could have been about anything! Anthony works in the real estate business: it could have been any one of a number of buildings he was talking about. Any one of a number of female rivals or difficult clients that 'doesn't suspect anything'! You have absolutely no evidence that he was talking about me or here or anything to do with Veritas! And you have absolutely no right to spy on him like that!"

"When did you get so blind, Juliet!" Cal snapped. "Stop making excuses for the man! He's not worth it! And don't try to tell me that he is, or that you love him anyway, because I know that's not true!"

"Don't tell me what I feel, Cal!" Juliet's voice rose angrily. "You don't have a clue what I feel!"

"Oh, really? You think?" Cal's eyebrows rose. "Tell me then. Convince me that you love this guy and that he is totally on the level and deserves you and I will walk away, right now, and never mention this again. Convince me that there is no good reason why you can't even bear to look at me unless you're yelling at me. That you are perfectly at ease in my company. That you're not uncomfortable with me this close." He let his arms bend slightly to bring him closer to her, and immediately Juliet's arms uncrossed themselves, her hands wavering in the space between them, ready to push him away but not quite able to bring herself to make contact. Cal bent his head down next to her ear. "Tell me your heart isn't beating faster right now because of me."

"Cal, don't do this," Juliet hissed. "I'm with Anthony now."

"You don't love him," Cal breathed into her ear.

"He loves me," Juliet replied, deflecting the telling statement.

"I love you."

Juliet's breath caught. There was no reply to that. What her heart wanted to say, her head wouldn't let her. What her head wanted to say, her heart wouldn't allow either. She swallowed again. He was so close now she could feel the warmth of his body surrounding her. It was a familiar warmth. Part of her was sure that if she closed her eyes and let herself feel comfortable in that warmth, they could turn back the clock and wake up in that underground maze in Syria, before everything had started to go wrong.

But everything had gone wrong, and clocks could not be turned backwards. She felt her fingertips graze his shirt and took a breath.

"Cal, please: let me go," Juliet whispered, her voice pained and stretched. "I'll talk to Anthony. I'll see what I can find out. Just let me go, please!"

Calvin backed off in silence, his hands in the air and his eyes on the floor. His cheeks were flushed, just like they had been that day he had caught her on her descent from the jet. He walked away without another word. This time she was sure her own face was burning too.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Hey, Tony, you looking for Juliet?" Nikko called across the hallway to the may who had just entered.

"We had a lunch date," the tall dark man supplied with a shrug.

"Well, she's around somewhere, but I don't know where," Nikko breezed. "Cal was looking for her earlier, I know. Dunno if he found her. Haven't seen either of them since."

Anthony mumbled a reply with a raised eyebrow and Nikko turned back to what he was doing and carried on in silence. I few minutes later, Juliet stormed past him, purse in hand and cheeks flushed.

"Sorry I'm late," she muttered to Anthony as she caught his arm. "Let's get out of here."

Before Nikko could say 'hello' the pair were gone. He stared after them in contemplative silence.

"I think I could use those crutches now," said a voice by his side, startling Nikko out of his reverie. He looked round to see Cal staring at the door, his face dark and unreadable.

"What happened when you fell down that hole in Syria?" Nikko asked outright. "And don't say nothing, because I am not going to stop until I have worked out exactly what the heck is bugging you two!"

_Six months and three weeks ago:_

"_We're fine Professor, honestly," Juliet was saying. "What we've found here is really interesting and might be a huge discovery. I don't want to say too much just yet, but it could change our understanding of European architecture immensely. We just need to do a few more tests and take a few more readings and sketches, then we'll be done and back on our way again."_

"_Okay, well, make sure you let us know if you need anything Juliet," said Professor Zond's voice. "And tell Cal to go easy on the local liquor!"_

_The mechanically rendered voice shut off and the darkness descended once more._

"_Did you have to tell him I was hung over?" Cal asked wearily._

"_Your other suggestion was that I tell him you'd gone off to look at stuff on your own," said Juliet matter-of-factly. "If I'd told the professor that, you know as well as I do that he'd be back on the jet and flying out here himself. This way, he believes me, he's not worried about either of us and our delay is explained."_

"_Could you try and sound a little less like I actually had a hangover?" Cal asked, pushing himself into a seated position with his back to the wall of their current abode. A breath of air against his cheek told him that Juliet had been close and he shot an arm out on the off chance. His arm connected and he pulled her in beside him. "Don't worry," he said quietly. "I got the ability to move back, I'm sure the ability to see will follow."_

"_It's been two and a half days, Cal," said Juliet, her breath warming his neck and left ear. "You were able to move again within a half hour. What if..."_

"_Don't!" Cal's voice was sharp. Sharper than it needed to be. "We have to assume that whatever caused the paralysis also caused the blindness. If the former has gone, the latter should follow, it just takes time! Don't freak out on me now, Juliet!"_

_A light touch traced the line of his jaw, turning his head to the left, and he felt Juliet's forehead touch his own and rest there._

"_I'll be here," she said. "No matter what."_

"So you were blind and could hardly move," said Nikko with a shrug. "So what? Juliet told me that much herself: the paralysis lasted half an hour and the blindness lasted three days."

"What else did she tell you?" Cal asked, easing himself into a chair and frowning up at Nikko.

"Not a lot," Nikko shrugged. "I mean, she told me how you fell down the hole, obviously, and how you both got there and what you thought the place was, but that was as far as we got."

Nikko sauntered over and sat down in a chair opposite Cal.

"Oh yeah," he said casually, almost as an afterthought, "and she mentioned somthing about you seeing bright lights and hearing voices. Care to share?"

The curse Cal bit back was obvious, as was the rising anger behind it. It took a minute or two for him to martial his features and turn back to Nikko. When he did, there was a cold beer by his right hand.

"Where...?"

"Please," Nikko shrugged. "You don't think I know my own father well enough to figure out where in his office he hides the beer?"

"Put it down," Cal nodded at the similar beer in Nikko's hand. "You may have graduated, but you're still under twenty one."

"And in my own home with a responsible adult..."

"Who's telling you to put the beer away if you want to hear any more of this story."

Nikko pulled a face and set the beer aside. "A small price to pay, I think."

"Okay," Cal paused. "The first thing you have to understand," he began, "is that I am quite willing to accept all of this as the result of a concussion. Even when my sight did return, three days after the accident itself, the bruising on my head was certainly serious enough to cause one.

The first thing I remember about the fall was this feeling of weightlessness. Time seemed to slow down too: so much that I could see the rubble falling around me, piece by piece. Then I couldn't see the rubble. All I could see was this bright, white light. I couldn't feel anything: no pain, no gravity, no tons of rock and dust falling past me, nothing. All I could see was this light. And all I could hear was this voice."

"What was it like?" Nikko interrupted. "The voice, I mean."

"I dunno," Cal shook his head. "It's hard to describe. I didn't really hear it, you see. At least, not in the normal way. Not with my ears. It was like it was already in me. In my head. But it wasn't my voice, you know? Like the voice you feel in your head when you think something to yourself? It wasn't like that. It was different. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before."

Cal was silent for a few moments, staring down at the Persian rug, apparently engrossed in unpicking the intricate design.

"What did it say?" Nikko prompted.

"What?" Cal frowned. "Oh. Yeah. That. It's weird, but I can't really remember. It's like, the more I try to think about it, the harder it gets to actually recall. Sometimes I get flashes. At least, I think they're flashes. I only seem to get them when I need them, like in Alaska. I knew I'd survive that fall. I don't know how, but I knew. And the only thing that happened to me hanging there, before I cut the rope, was a flash of that bright white light and some vestige of a barely remembered voice. Then it was gone, and I knew what I had to do, and I knew that I'd survive, so I did it.

What I do remember, about the voice during the fall, was that I didn't recognise it. I mean not at all, not even slightly. But somehow I trusted it. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that whatever this voice told me was the truth. One hundred percent, absolute. I don't know how, or why, I knew that, I just did."

"Can you remember anything about what it said the first time?" Nikko asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"Not in so many words, no," Cal shrugged. "I remember the light, and the idea of feeling this voice in my head, but nothing about what it actually said. The next thing I remember was cold, pain and Juliet's voice shouting my name from somewhere above me. The weird thing was I knew, as soon as I heard her and without any doubt whatsoever, that I was in love with her. Completely, devotedly and utterly. She was the one for me, and I was the one for her. And I knew, just as surely, that it would all work out."

"Hasn't done so yet," Nikko raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't know when it would work out, just that it would," said Cal patiently. "I know: it sounds crazy. You think I'm crazy, I think I'm crazy, she thinks I'm crazy..."

"Wait, you told Juliet this?" Nikko's voice went up about an octave.

"Yeah, okay, maybe not the best tactic in the world, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time."

"And that make it so much better..."

"Nevertheless, she knows, and now you know, and so far that's it. Nobody else needs to know about this Nikko. Your father has way too much on his plate with the Alaskan artefact to be worrying about whether or not I'm becoming stalker material."

"Man, you can't be sure of that..."

"I am. We have enough crazy around here on a normal day without adding my extra helping to the pot. It affects Juliet and me. We both know all the details. Nobody else needs to know them. I wouldn't even be telling you if she hadn't already given you half the story."

"So that's it?" Both Nikko's eyebrows rose this time. "Juliet's given me her half and now you've given me yours? Then how come it doesn't feel like even a fraction of the whole story?"

Cal opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the sound of a door slamming. It was the main door. Heels clicked past the now closed office door. Juliet was back from her lunch date. Cal rose stiffly to his feet and put out a hand to steady himself.

"Addition of beer or lack of crutches?" Nikko grinned.

"The latter," Cal growled. "Excuse me while I go find them."

Nikko watched him go, then picked up his unopened beer and replaced it in the mini-fridge masquerading as a wooden wall panel. He sat back in his father's office chair and thought over the two competing stories. Cal seemed to be claiming that the flash of light was the first he had known about his feelings for Juliet. Juliet seemed to be hinting that there had been something there from much earlier. Cal claimed he had told Juliet everything, at least everything he had told Nikko, as far as what had happened in Syria was concerned, maybe more. Juliet, however, despite her obvious feelings for him, had chosen Tony. And she had been with Tony how long? She had said six months at her graduation ceremony. That was a month ago now. And the trip to the Holy Land was when? Not quite seven months ago. So she had already been seeing Tony before everything happened with Cal? Only about a week, though, if that. If something had changed between her and Cal on the trip, surely it would have been easy enough to tell Tony that she didn't want to see him any more?

Something niggled at the back of Nikko's mind. Something wasn't quite right. Not about Cal, but maybe about Juliet, and definitely about Tony. Before his thoughts could untangle any further, the office door opened and Vincent was propelling him out of the room, both verbally and physically, towards the training area.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Juliet sat curled up in the corner of a window overlooking the busy street below the Veritas buildings. The lunch with Anthony hadn't gone well had she had resorted to burying herself in her work to avoid questions. It had worked so far, but there was still one person she was finding it hard to hide from: herself. Her hands rested on a notepad filled with scribbled and half-deciphered symbols. Her head rested on the cool glass of the window. Her mind was far from either. Instead of focussing on the text she had been working on for months, Juliet's eyes were closed, picturing once again the dark, dusty catacombs of Syria.

_Day One - Just after the fall_

"_I'm coming down, Cal, just wait there," Juliet called, having checked the knots she had tied around the surface rubble at least seven times. The packs were already down, so was the other rope: there was only herself left to go._

"_I'm not exactly going anywhere," Cal's voice called back up. She could hear the grin in it._

_She had taken her time and made sure not to scream when something, probably a piece of loose topsoil and not at all a bat, brushed past her about half way down. She had even made it to floor level without more than a few impatient queries from Cal. She took her time climbing up the heap of rubble, not wanting to cause a slip that might land them both in even more trouble. It wasn't terribly high, but Cal was on the top of it so if it moved, he moved, and, if he couldn't move as he was, with nothing pinning him down, moving him might make the problem worse. Much worse._

"_Okay, I'm here," Juliet tried to keep the panic out of her voice as she reached Cal's side. "Please tell me you're in pain?"_

"_Remind me to sign you up for those bedside manner classes when we get home!" Cal retorted, his body motionless, his eyes staring blankly upwards._

"_You know what I mean," Juliet snapped, trickling water onto a cotton swab and wiping the blood and grime from his forehead. She followed up with an antiseptic wipe and felt no need to hide the smirk when Cal grimaced at the stinging pain._

"_I haven't broken my back, my neck or, as far as I can tell, anything else," he informed her through gritted teeth. "I may have cracked a rib or two and I have a heck of a lot of bruises on my back, maybe a few scrapes, but that's it. Nothing serious."_

"_Nothing except an open head injury, possible internal bleeding, blindness and complete paralysis!" Juliet replied, checking him over for broken bones nonetheless. Her hands ran over his limbs automatically, following the thread of scapula and clavicle, humerus, radius and ulna, then tibia and fibula, up to the femur and back down again on the other side. It wasn't until she was halfway up the far arm that the memory of those arms around her at the plane kicked in. She hesistated, banishing the memory from her mind, then moved on. When she got to his ribs, she eased up a bit, running her fingers lightly over the possible damage. Two maybe three ribs were probably cracked, eliciting a hiss of pain from her patient as she found them, others were only bruised._

"_You need these seen to," she murmured. "Your back probably needs looking at too."_

"_Leave it: you can't do anything to help until I can move again, but I can't do anything to make it worse either."_

"_I can't just leave you here: it'll be dark soon. If we don't get under cover and insulated, we'll have hypothermia by morning."_

"_I'm not saying leave me here all night," Cal's voice rose slightly. "Just give me some time - ten minutes, twenty, whatever - and then we'll see if anything's changed. Seriously, Juliet, there's nothing more you can do here right now. You said it yourself: it'll be dark soon and we need to have our camping gear ready. Go sort that out first, then come back to me. It'll take you twice as long to set it up alone anyway!"_

_She had set up camp in a corner as far from the pile of rubble as she could find. Carved columns on either side of the camp and in front of it, opposite the corner itself, marked out a small square she hoped was safe from further cave-ins. It did take her longer without Cal's help, and by the time she made her way back up the rubble the light was growing dim. She sat down by his side, legs curled under her and her weight supported by her hand._

"_Any change?"_

"_Little bit," Cal replied._

_Juliet jumped when the hand next to her legs moved outward and hit her. Her breath caught, and she froze as it followed the line of her legs up to her hip. She swallowed and forced her mind to stop flying back to that moment at the airstrip. The feeling of strong, safe arms encircling her dissipated. When Cal's hand reached her waist, she shook her head, cleared her throat and caught the hand in her own._

"_You okay?" Cal frowned blindly upward._

"_Think you can sit up?" Juliet asked, deflecting the question. "I take it you still can't see?"_

"_Still blind," he confirmed. "Give me a hand and we'll try sitting up though."_

_It had taken another hour to get Cal down from the rubble heap and into the tent. Every step seemed to put pressure on a different cracked rib. Eventually he was sitting under the glow of a lantern, the torn remains of his shirt removed and discarded._

"_How bad is it?" Cal asked, wincing as Juliet cleaned another cut on his back._

"_You'll live," she replied. "At least as long as any of these cuts don't get infected."_

"_And as long as we find more water to replace what it's taken to clean me up!" Cal retorted. "How much do we have left?"_

"_Enough for now," Juliet murmured, trying to focus on the task at hand. It hadn't been easy. ever since that moment when she fell down the steps at the airstrip, the smallest thing seemed able to take her back there. The deep, dark pools of his eyes. Eyes she could easily lose herself in. The gentleness of his voice. The unexpected strength in his arms. Why hadn't she expected that? Because he was an archeologist? Because he was clever? Wasn't that just holding to a stereotype? Sure, he had started college way before she had, and had earned the title of doctor, which he never used, way before she had, but hadn't he also been at the top of Professor Zond's list when they went to Antarctica? Okay, maybe Vincent might have been above him overall, but it hadn't been Vincent the professor had taken with him to teach his son how to climb. Suddenly the muscles in Cal's arms and back seemed almost too obvious to Juliet and she wondered how on Earth she hadn't noticed it before. Unfortunately, trying to ignore the play of light on the muscles of the man you've suddenly found yourself attracted to and now find yourself having to pay exact, albeit medical, attention to is not exactly easy, and for once Juliet was incredibly glad Cal couldn't see her face._

"Juliet?" Maggie's voice broke in on Juliet's daydream, startling her. "Juliet!" She could feel her cheeks burning.

"Huh? Maggie?" Juliet looked around. Maggie was standing, arms crossed, looking down at her.

"Daydreaming about lover-boy, huh?" Maggie asked raising an eyebrow. "And you only just saw him at lunch too. My, what it is to be young and in love!"

"Huh?" Juliet frowned, momentarily confused, then remembered her lunch date with Anthony. And the fact that she was supposed to be in love with Anthony. Anthony. Not Cal. "Yeah, right, of course," she muttered, pushing herself up out of the window alcove. "Was there something?"

"Solomon's called a meeting," Maggie told her, trying to hide a poorly suppressed smile and sound stern. "Wants us all in the main lab to go through the Alaskan finds. I get the feeling he's in a mood to start dishing out duties and, if we're late, we'll get the most tedious ones: so get a wriggle on."

The two women made their way through to the main lab. The men, and Nikko, whom Juliet still couldn't think of as anything other than a boy, except perhaps a health hazard, were all there. Professor Zond stood at the far end of the table, on which all the finds from Alaska were now spread out. Vincent, as always, hovered nearby murmuring quietly in the professor's ear as they perused a map that lay in front of them. Nikko leant nonchalantly against a bookcase, eating. Cal sat by the table, his crutches visible behind him. For a second Juliet let her gaze rest on him, taking in the dark eyes focused downwards, the dark hair curling gently about his ears, the pensive gaze as he turned over one of the artefacts in his hands. Juliet followed his gaze. The artefact was one she had never seen before: a rectangular box about the size of a deep pencil case or a long jewellery box. The hands turning the artefact over and over stopped suddenly. Juliet looked up to find Cal watching her with much the same expression as he had the artefact. Their gaze met for just a second before she looked away and cleared her throat. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the ghost of a smile flicker across Cal's face.

"Okay folks, now that we're all here," Professor Zond began. "There's a lot to analyse, so I'm going to split the tasks by type here. Maggie and I will take chemical analysis. We'll start with the eye of Horus and work our way through the collection of artefacts that way. Juliet and Cal: you're our language experts so you take the lead on translation. You can start with that box and, while you're at it, see if it opens at all. Vincent and Nikko: you're on recording and dry research. I want photographs, sketches and 3D HD imaging of everything we've found; and anything we turn up in the course of our research, you find out about, whether it's ancient tongues or the changing stratigraphy of the planet. Are we clear?"

A varied chorus of assents echoed around the room. People started moving off with artefacts to study, copy or test. Finally the only people remaining at the table were Juliet and Cal. Juliet's eyes remained stolidly fixed on the box in his hands.

"You okay?" Cal asked


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_Day 2 - The morning after the fall_

_Juliet woke as the first light of dawn began to creep over the edge of the gaping hole in the ceiling and filtered into the tent. It took her a moment to register where she was: lying on a stone floor with her head on Cal's shoulder and one hand resting on his chest. The clear sky last night had foretold a temperature drop to be wary of, and there had only been space for one tent in their little corner, so it had been decided they would share. She had been sure she wouldn't sleep, lying on her side in her sleeping bag at the farthest edge of the small tent, but he had thrown out an arm and pulled her close. It wasn't that he made her uncomfortable. If anything, she was too comfortable. Even now, with the light outside the tent growing gradually brighter, she just didn't want to move. She could feel his chest rise and fall steadily below her hand, his heartbeat slow and equally steady. He was still asleep._

_Juliet disentangled herself from Cal's arms and sat up, looking down at her recumbent patient and friend. How he could sleep with the wounds on his back was beyond her, but he had refused morphine and had settled down on the hard stone floor without much complaint. She had felt his breathing settle into the even rhythm of sleep long before her own. Her mind had been too busy going over the days events. Her body had been complaining about the discomfort of the makeshift bed. More than that though: she had been trying, trying so hard, not to feel comfortable lying next to Cal._

_It shouldn't bother her. They had shared a tent before in similar circumstances. They would probably share one again, more than once, before either of them left Veritas. It was that kind of job: your colleagues became your friends, your best friends, and you shared everything with them. Why? Because these were the people you trusted with your life. Because these were the only people who understood everything, every single thing, about what you did every day. Because these were the only people who truly inhabited your world._

_Really?_

_But Anthony was part of her world now too, wasn't he?_

_Maybe she couldn't talk to him about everything she did at work, but that was normal wasn't it? Nobody went home at night and told their partner everything they'd done all day. Most people probably didn't even talk about work when they got home. Anthony never did. Not unless she pressed him about it, anyway._

_The rising sun cast its first warm rays across Cal's face. For a moment he was like a serene statue warmed by the glow of sunlight through high church windows, then his eyes scrunched up against the light and heat and the moment had passed. His arm cast out to the side, looking for her._

"_Juliet?" Cal's voice sounded distant._

XXXX

"Juliet!" Cal's voice was beside her now, snapping Juliet out of her reverie. That had been happening too much lately, she thought.

"What?" Juliet snapped back, hearing the irritation in her own voice and immediately berating herself for it.

"Scanner!"

She passed him the mobile scanner and clicked the icon on the computer desktop that ran the item's software.

"Ready," she called as the program pinged at the end of its loading.

Laser sharp images apeared on the screen as Cal passed the scanner over the wooden box. The HD upgrade had been worth the money their generous benefactor had paid. The computer pinged as the image screen saved and closed. Another window opened as Cal began scanning the second side of the box. It took time to set up and adjust the light boxes, and the items all had to be scanned slowly, but there was no argument that the picture quality was much better, even picking up things that there was no way anyone would have spotted with the naked eye. Juliet watched the image on the screen slide slowly by, glad of the necessity for someone to watch the screen as someone else handled the scanner. The carvings on the box were interesting: detailed and intricate, yet incredibly old. How old exactly was unknown, and would remain so until they could send a sample down to Maggie for carbon dating and other chemical analyses.

The computer pinged as Cal moved on to another side. Juliet watched as the scanner moved over what was now the base of the box. Plain grained wood slid past at high resolution and higher definition. Juliet blinked. Surely that wasn't a natural knot in the wood? Her head jutted forward, following the pattern across the screen until it disappeared. She stared at the side of the screen where the pattern had vanished from sight. Eventually, the computer pinged and another picture began to fill the monitor. Juliet grabbed the mouse and pulled up the program history, clicking on the item it had just completed and dragging the newly opened file to the right spot.

To the naked eye, it would look just like an ordinary knot in a piece of timber. Small, but ordinary nonetheless. Under high definition, other lines could be seen. Someone, someone with a skill beyond modern ideas of talented, had painted the base of the box. Not just painted it, but painted over it. And they had painted the exact pattern of the wood grain. The exact pattern, right on top of the pattern itself! The colours, the lines: everything matched perfectly! Everything! Until you reached the knot!

As Juliet examined the knot in greater detail, she could see the lines of the wood grain continuing towards the eliptical spot. They continued as if there was nothing there! The paintwork on top matched the wood grain perfectly, until the point where the paintwork slid out to bend, perfectly naturally, around the darker ovoid, and the wood grain did not.

The knot was false. It was well hidden, but it was definitely false.

The computer pinged as Cal completed the fourth side of the box. It took him considerably less time to scan the two ends, then he made his way over to the computer with the scanner.

"Done," he said, placing the scanner in its holder. "This can go down to the boy wonder and Vincent."

"Don't be too sure," Juliet grinned, sliding out of her computer chair and ducking under Cal's arm to reach the box. She deftly turned the box over, found the tiny knot and flipped the box right side up again. "Watch!"

The top of the box didn't slide dramatically outwards or spring suddenly upwards like a jack-in-the-box. Instead, there was an almost inaudible click and a thin crack appeared all around the midline of the sides of the box.

"Should we?" Juliet breathed. "Professor Zond..."

"He asked us to find out if opened, not if it started showing signs of breaking down," Cal cut in. "Let's find out if it opens right up before we start breaking out the champagne."

Juliet placed the box back down on the light rich surface they'd used for scanning. Gently, she edged the top half of the box upward. It slid up easily, revealing tall internal edges almost as high as its external ones. When the top of the box finally came loose, Juliet lifted it away and placed it reverently down on one side. There was a tablet in the box. The top half protruded from an ancient padding of velvet. It looked intact. Cal's hand snaked out towards it. Juliet slapped it away.

"It's open. Go fetch the professor," she commanded.

"Go fetch?" Cal complained, moving away anyway. "What am I? A labrador?"

As his footsteps left the room, Juliet crouched down, bringing her eyes to the level of the box. There were markings on the internal edges. She looked into the box, her eyes scanning the visible part of the tablet. There were markings on the tablet too. Both sets of markings were clearly forms of writing, but they were just as clearly different. The markings on the inside of the box looked like runes, probably Norse. The markings on the tablet, though clearer, looked older. They were sets of lines. Much simpler and more primitive even than the angular runes.

"Found something interesting?"

Juliet jumped up and spun around, instinctively blocking the box from view with her body.

"Anthony? What are you doing here?" Juliet hissed.

"I had a gap in my schedule," Tony shrugged smoothly, his eyes scanning the walls and contents of the room lazily, almost as if he was bored. They came back to rest on Juliet. "Can't a guy visit his girl at work if he feels like it?"

"You shouldn't be in here, Anthony," Juliet sought for a reason to back her up. "These labs, the equipment; it's all state of the art. It's so sensitive to any contaminants or knocks... And the artefacts! We have to be so careful with these old parchments!"

"I won't touch anything!" Tony held up his hands in mock surrender. "I'll be on my best behaviour, I promise!"

"How exactly did you get in here?" Juliet frowned, closing the reflectant light boxes around the wooden box and tablet as she watched her boyfriend sidle into the room, hands in pockets and eyes scanning everything. She had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew that look: it was the one Vincent got whenever he was casing somewhere.

"I'd like to know that too," said Professor Zond from the doorway, Maggie and Cal behind him. "My head of security is on his way here as we speak," he continued. "I'm sure he'd love to hear all the details!"

Anthony smiled brightly. Too brightly, thought Juliet.

"Just dropping by, saw the door was open and thought I'd surprise Juliet," said Tony, oozing charm. "No offense meant. Sorry if I broke the rules."

"You'll know better in future," Solomon replied, stepping aside to make way for their unexpected guest just as Nikko and Vincent joined them. "Please allow Vincent to escort you out. We wouldn't want you to lose your way: this building can be quite confusing when you've never been in it before."

"Leaving so soon, Tony?" Nikko grinned. "And we never even had time to chat!"

Nikko continued grinning as he watched Vincent propel Tony towards the exit. As they rounded the first corner and moved out of sight he began to chortle then winced as a hand connected with his head.

"What? Seriously!" Nikko fumed at the trio behind him. His father raised an eyebrow and turned, leading them into the lab.

"What have we got?" Solomon asked, indicating the closed reflectors behind Juliet.

"Professor, I am so sorry about..."

"Don't worry about it," he interrupted Juliet's apology with a wave. "Vincent has been looking for an excuse to overhaul the security measures in here ever since the new computer system arrived. I think he's jealous of all our new toys. Cal said you opened the box?"

Juliet stepped aside and moved the light reflector boxes out of the way. The edge of the tablet was visible over the side of the open box. Professor Zond picked up the scanner and passed it to Juliet.

"Let's get it recorded _in situ_, then we can start getting it out of there," he ordered. "This is the next link in the chain."


End file.
